The Baldpate 



manner. The knowledge thus gained is manifestly far from satisfying. 



The third method, if I may call it such under its myriad fashions, 

 is to cultivate, deliberately, the good will of the duck, to put him at his 

 ease, and to provide for his creature comforts to the extent that he will 

 come to act with perfect naturalness. Needless to say, this can be se- 

 cured only by absolute protection, that is, the establishment of reserves 

 and sanctuaries. And if to this negative assistance be added some 

 method of feeding, a regular distribution of grain or table scraps, or, 

 better still, the planting along water-courses or over the shallows of 

 plants esteemed by the ducks as food, the confidence, the freedom of 

 action, the vivacious and playful behavior which may be secured on the 

 part of the ducks will be gratifying in the extreme. 



Needless to say, also, a combination of the first and third methods 

 is perfectly legitimate. The establishment of game farms and the 

 utilization of our waste places, such as brackish lagoons and the interior 

 lakes, for wild fowl propagation, will one day have to supplant our present 

 wasteful policy of haphazard breeding and privileged shooting. 



The fourth method, or opportunity, for bird study is to be found only 

 upon the breeding grounds of the ducks. This is, however, by no means 

 the place of privilege that it is in the case of most other birds. The 

 ducks know how to be very secretive in their movements in connection 

 with nest-building and incubation, as well as in their care of young. 

 Again, the bird student must accept the role of spy, and content himself 

 with scraps of information laboriously gleaned. Thus, he will learn 

 of the Widgeon that the female seeks a grassy or weed-crowded area not 

 too far from water. The first egg is deposited upon the surface of the 

 ground or in some slight natural depression. As the number of eggs 

 increases she begins to gather bits of dead grass or macerated weed- 

 stalks for a scanty lining. The chief interest, however, is in the securing 

 of abundant food, and in enjoying the company of the handsome drake, 

 who is very attentive at this season. When the egg complement is 

 reached, eight or ten or twelve, or whatever it may be, her breast is 

 plucked of its down to provide a copious lining and blanket. The male 

 is banished so thoroughly that he hunts up his similarly exiled fellows 

 and goes in for club life; while his late spouse settles to the long vigil 

 which is at once the tenderest, the most pathetic, and the most useful 

 of nature's offices. Four weeks of tense concentration, relieved only by 

 surreptitious visits to the feeding grounds — an hour or so thus spent 

 out of twenty-four — four weeks of harrowing anxiety relative to blun- 

 dering foot-steps, whether of man or ox, or of far more purposeful patter 

 of light foot-falls, guided by sharp noses and urged by sharper teeth, 

 of weasel, mink, coyote, or raccoon. All these dangers survived, the 



1765 



